Vulkan had a solemn look on his face, and layers of green leaves blocked his gaze as he looked into the depths of the rainforest.
[The Eldar here are difficult to deal with.]
As they went deeper into the jungle, the Salamanders were ambushed by the Eldar more than once. Those Eldar were equipped with heavy plasma weapons. They rushed out of the jungle together with the behemoths and tore apart the Salamanders' marching troops.
Those Eldar who used witchcraft were difficult to deal with, and both companies suffered heavy losses.
However, they were only halfway through their journey and the salamanders were stuck in the rainforest and unable to take care of themselves.
What made Vulkan even more anxious was that news came from Finus that "more time is needed". Vulkan knew Finus. Finus, who had always been iron-fisted, was the Primarch who least wanted to be seen as incompetent, especially in front of a Primarch he was not familiar with and whom he was dissatisfied with.
When Finus brought this message, Vulkan realized that this battle would be difficult, and he immediately prepared to extend the planned time - but the Death Guard only responded to the message from the Fire Dragon Lord with a cold "Received".
Vulkan pondered silently in his heart. The Primarch had very little contact with Mortarion, but that time was enough for Vulkan to see that Mortarion was also a first-class weirdo. He might be stubborn, irritable, or very concerned about his reputation - too many Primarchs were like this.
If the Death Guard also encountered difficulties... Vulkan thought that their battle plan might need to be drastically changed.
In fact, Vulkan has already begun thinking about how to change the battle plan.
But what he didn't know was that the Death Guard on the other side would be far more powerful than he imagined.
—————
The storm rolled up with the spell, and the witch of the Eldar tribe shouted loudly.
"You guys—"
The next moment, her face was hit by a black bullet from the Lord of Death, and the sound of a broken nose seemed to be heard in the noisy battlefield.
Mortarion had a blank expression on his face as he neatly and efficiently took out another talkative Eldar with his pistol and Dark Lantern. The Lord of Death silently memorized that most of the Eldar who rushed in front of him and yelled at him were often dead before they could utter the first word.
Around him, the snow on the ice field was shaking in a regular pattern, the knight mechas were running on the ground with heavy steps, and the thermal cannons were lit up, melting all the enemies in their way.
The giant python that had just entangled Garo had already been cut into several pieces and thrown behind the Death Guards. The two knights tore it apart together, and the blood dripping from their chainsaw swords was still emitting a fishy and sweet hot steam.
The giant python's corpse stared dimly at the figures of the Death Guards, as if it was still confused as to why the Eldar who had previously supported it no longer released sorcery to assist its attack.
The Zeroth Company descended from the sky, the connection between the Eldar and the Warp was weakened, the witches' spells began to become weak and powerless, and the battle situation at this moment obviously became more cruel for the Eldar.
Countless warriors rushed out from the bunkers near the obelisk. Most of them fought independently. Each Eldar soldier had dazzling combat skills like dancing. They fought with the Death Guards and used sharp blades and plasma to stab the weak points on the armor of the Imperial warriors.
At first glance, the Death Guards were entangled by the Eldar warriors. Under the attack of the Eldar soldiers, their swinging scythes or swords became so clumsy and slow at this moment, like a drunkard entangled by a spirit snake, but -
The Eldar can attack as many times as they want, but they can only make one mistake.
The so-called countless attacks will make these Eldar soldiers understand what the true "Tenacity of Death Guard" means.
What frustrates the Eldar most is that no matter how they provoke or how they roar, these aliens in bone-white armor never respond to them verbally. For the soldiers who are good at personal duels, the anger in their hearts cannot be released at all, and they cannot feel the full will to fight.
As time went on, the suffocating feeling brought to the Eldar by the enemy's silence gradually evolved into fear.
Apart from the roaring sound of the engines when the mechas were running, the Death Guards silently and resolutely pushed their front lines forward. Blood and armor fragments were scattered on the muddy snow. They brought death, and they were death.
Finally, the Death Guard approached the obelisk. Mortarion silently looked at the dozens of witches glaring at him from behind the psychic shield. He first threw a black bullet to predict, and then -
[Foundry Department.]
The Lord of Death gave his orders and once again used his scythe to chop away the Eldar who rushed over to fight him. During the brief forty seconds he stayed there, the Eldar corpses around Mortarion had already piled up into two layers.
"Mortarion!!!"
Inside the Eldar shield, the leading Eldar witch yelled at Mortarion, her delicate face distorted by anger and tears.
Mortarion raised his hand and fired a dark lantern. The flames splashed on the psychic shield. After a brief burst of fireworks, the damn face reappeared in front of Mortarion.
Under his hood, the Lord of Death frowned unhappily, and he whispered again,
[Foundry department, hurry up. ]
"Got it! Sir!! We are still reloading, it will take at least another minute!!"
One minute, Mortarion made a simple estimate. If he had to continue fighting, his ammunition would not be enough to support him to continuously and persistently shoot at the damn Eldar for a minute.
He vented his anger by firing another shot at the Eldar's position, then prepared to turn around to help Gala.
"Mortarion! The son of death! Stay away from him! Your stubborn behavior will only bring you closer to death! Let humans and the Eldar perish together!!!"
Mortarion's gas mask blew out a thick, dark mist, and he stared at the witch without blinking.
[Wandering Soul 04, 05,]
He said,
[Come out and smash it for me!]
Two mechas rushed out from the battlefield behind him. The molten light almost ignited the air. Roars and the roar of chainsaw swords sounded together, and the shield was lit up by the sudden attack.
Mortarion vaguely heard the witch's screams, and he was glad that she had done at least one right thing before she died, which was to stop her damn mouth from making any more fart sounds.
[Foundry Department, one minute and three seconds. For Hades' sake, I'll give you one last chance.]
The next moment, a huge missile flew over Mortarion. With his superb dynamic vision, the Primarch saw that the missile seemed to have "Gift of Hades" written on it
What a good idea, Mortarion sneered. He didn't have many restrictions on the Foundry Department. Plus, Hades might have done something on Mars, so the technical sergeants of the Death Guard seemed to be more familiar with the master forge who had left.
This made him feel better, and Mortarion followed Hades's gift slowly, then he raised his sickle and chopped off the witch's head. The head flew around with a frozen expression, and she seemed angry and horrified as to why Mortarion was unwilling to listen to her prophecy.
Why should Mortarion listen? He was not the kind of person who liked to yell and curse at others on the battlefield. There were always fools who liked to yell and curse at the enemy.
Five minutes later, the Death Guard Storm Birds descended upon the land in a sweeping bombardment, and Ibsen's first node was destroyed.
—————
Near the node, the Salamanders suffered unimaginable resistance. The Eldar were attacking them desperately. Their heavy tanks had difficulty entering the rain forest, and the bombing by air forces could only cause the tall branches to fall and burn above their heads.
Countless behemoths and elves rushed out of the dense forest, waving their staffs, and the roots and branches came alive, curling up around their helmets and boots.
Strange lights and shadows flickered, chirping sounds were heard, and something huge flew over their heads.
Vulkan gritted his teeth, anger burning in his body, he fought, swinging his hammer without stopping, and stopping would mean death.
[The moment of trial!!!]
Vulkan shouted, and his brood answered him,
"For Vulkan!"
Salamanders can pass this test!
But just as he was immersed in the battle, the lazy voice of the Lord of Death sounded in the general channel.
Vulkan responded without thinking, he didn't quite understand what Mortarion was talking about, but Vulkan would not speculate about his brother with malice, he answered Mortarion honestly.
Mortarion's voice rang out again.
[Roger that, Salamanders, please wear your helmets, or at least protect your respiratory systems.]
Vulkan, still immersed in the battlefield, did not understand what his brother was doing, but he still subconsciously glanced at the damage to the respiratory system in his helmet.
Three minutes later, the code of the Death Guard air force sounded in the channel, and it began to rain in the rain forest - no, thick gray-blue poisonous smoke flowed down from the dense leaves of the giant trees like liquid, like venom dripping from the fangs of a poisonous snake.
The leaves began to wither instantly, and the giant beasts fighting with them subconsciously jumped away from the areas where the poisonous gas was deposited - but they soon realized that there was no real pure land here.
The space began to darken, and the whole world became like an inverted hourglass.
!
Vulkan smashed down a hammer, and he yelled in panic in the channel,
[Mortarion! We cannot use—]
The next moment, a huge sickle flew past Vulkan and accurately smashed the head of the witch who tried to speak in front of the Primarch. The iron chain tied to the end of the sickle was rattling.
[It's difficult for the armored forces to enter. Do you really want to fight them alone, Vulcan? ]
The firewood men around Vulkan subconsciously dispersed, the Lord of Death slowly walked to Vulkan's side, and the Death Guards in bone-white armor began to enter the scene.
Mortarion looked at Vulkan mockingly, but his attack did not slow down at all.
Vulkan paused. He was still in a furious fighting state. He spoke with anger in his tone.
[This land is still useful, you can't destroy it! ]
The Lord of Death looked at him calmly, and Vulkan saw mockery and defiance in Mortarion's eyes - but Mortarion did not speak.
The Lord of Death rolled his eyes at Vulkan, which made Vulkan want to hit Mortarion, but then the Lord of Death casually reached his hand into the gray-blue poisonous gas that had risen to his waist.
Mortarion snapped his fingers, and tiny sparks lit up between his pale gauntlets.
In an instant, scorching flames rose!
The flames reflected on Vulkan's pupils, which shrank to an incredible degree at this moment. He looked at Mortarion in surprise -
That poisonous smoke is flammable!
This is... This is really...
If they weren't still on the battlefield, Vulkan would have given Mortarion a big hug.
Vulkan opened his mouth. He decided to forget what Fenus said for a short while, which made him feel a little guilty, but the warm and charming flame soothed away his remaining uneasiness.
Vulkan's voice travels across the Salamanders' channels,
My descendants...
[I beg you to let the flames burn brightly!!!]
The sound of changing equipment began to be heard, followed by the hissing sound of flames.
Mortarion beside him uttered another obvious sneer, but Vulkan would not care about it. The fire dragon lord who loved fire knew the value of the poisonous smoke, and Mortarion had already shown his sincerity.
Although he would never know that at the back end of the battlefield, some Death Guard pharmacists were quietly collecting the flesh and blood of the fire lizards.
And Mortarion obviously wanted some blood of the Fire Dragon Lord.
The arrival of reinforcements rekindled the fighting spirit of the Salamanders, and the blazing flames made their fighting spirit surge! For a moment, the battle cry for Vulkan resounded throughout the rainforest, even drowning out the painful roars of the Eldar beasts.
Although the silence of the Death Guards made them feel a little confused and the Death Guards seemed to have little fighting spirit, their presence still greatly relieved the pressure. The Death Guards seemed happy to take the damage head-on, which gave the Salamanders room to output as much as they could.
The scorching heat and poisonous smoke, no race can withstand such torture, but the Death Guard and the Salamanders are both legions established by the Empire for extreme environments. In this hell, the warriors actually felt the intense fighting spirit.
The rainforest withered and then burst into flames! Now it's their home turf!
…
The flames gradually died down, when the last trace of green turned to charcoal, when the last behemoth was shot down by the storm bird, all that was left around them were the charred, curled up corpses of the Eldar.
At the last moment, three unusual missiles were fired from the rear end of the Death Guard, completely detonating the key runes and gems on the building.
Vulkan had mixed feelings about the cruel deaths of these Eldar. The tragic scene of the Eldar being suffocated by poison gas was still vivid in his mind. He hoped that they would be burned to death by flames or hit to the head by hammers - this would at least reduce their pain.
But this exhilarating battle made the Fire Dragon Lord feel even more refreshed. In this area, the previously impenetrable rainforest had already been burned to ashes, and the sun was shining brightly on the scorched earth. This was a sign that they had survived the trial.
Vulkan was proud of his children.
Behind him, Mortarion casually glanced at Vulkan, who was obviously in a good mood. Based on the battle just now, the Lord of Death also had a high opinion of this brother - Vulkan was very pure, and when fighting, he just wanted to fight, which meant that he was easy to deal with.
Of course Mortarion didn't mean that Vulkan was easy to deal with in a one-on-one combat. Vulkan was very strong. He meant that he was easy to deal with tactically... no... linguistically.
Easy to cheat and fool.
Mortarion made his definition silently, and the Lord of Death had a sharp and merciless evaluation of his Primarch brothers in his heart.
The war was over, and the two legions began the post-war cleanup. Mortarion and Vulkan walked up to the obelisk - this one was much larger and more magnificent than the three nodes that Mortarion had cleaned up.
However... As they circled the obelisk, Mortarion and Vulkan received a message in their helmets at the same time.
The armor signal of Fenus suddenly appeared near them, but there was no Iron Hands code on his body. Following the signal of the Primarch's armor, Mortarion and Vulkan found a gate leading deep underground under the obelisk.
They stood in front of the gate, and after trying to contact Finus six or seven times without success, Mortarion spoke.
[My suggestion is to fill it with poison gas.]
Vulkan's exclamation was heard immediately.
[Brother, you can't do this! Although this may be a trap, but—]
Mortarion interrupted Vulkan,
[I can guarantee that this poison gas will not kill Fenus, but it can kill or incapacitate the behemoths and the Eldar. This is helping him.]
4.5k words, no more today!!!
Damn, I almost forgot again, book recommendation! This is a crazy masterpiece by the Dark Lady!!
(End of this chapter)